Making an Impact at SAP to support the UN SDGs – Part 2: Quality Education / Clean Water and Sanitation

As you may be aware, SAP strongly supports the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)to improve lives around the world. These 17 global goals are aimed at sustainable prosperity for all in emerging and developed regions. In part 1 of this series, we covered overall topics and outlined activities led by SAP’s Corporate Social Responsibility Team.

Part 2 will focus on how SAP makes an impact on Quality Education, Goal #4 / Clean Water and Sanitation, Goal #6. To create sustainable futures, there must be educated workers who can support government agencies, private-sector businesses, and other organizations that fuel economic growth. To build an educated workforce, children must be provided the opportunity to learn. At the same time, we need to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. Though 71% of earth is covered by oceans, lakes, and rivers, more than 10% of people lack clean water. Significant progress has been made since 1990, with one-third of humans now having access to improved water, but there is still more to do.

Let’s start with a project that supports both goals: Clean Water and Sanitation, as well as Quality Education: Rimwaya Gustave Sawadogo – Gustave to his friends and colleagues – gets very emotional when he talks about his “Mangoes for Schools” project to support his homeland Burkina Faso: Gustave very much enjoys living in Germany and working for SAP. At the same time, he wants to raise money to help children in Burkina Faso and give them the best possible start in life.

That’s why a few years ago, he imported mangoes to sell them to colleagues and friends in Germany. What started as an order for 50 boxes of mangoes back in 2012 has developed into a logistics operation to transport 30 tons of mangoes from the west of Africa to the heart of Europe.

With the „Mango Project” they not only built 13 schools for about 12,000 young people in Burkina Faso since 1999, but also established the first inclusive school for blind children in his homeland. This means that an additional 130 blind and sighted kids now have the chance for a better education. This is of utmost importance because without education, blind children have almost no future in this country. Great news: thanks to Gustave’s initiative, the local teachers and children now even have a water supply well alongside the school. Everyone is extremely proud of the newly built water fountain that made a big impact for them as they do not need to walk long distances to have water available onsite. By the way, the name ‘Sawadogo’ means: “The guy who comes from the horizon”. And this guy – Gustave – even brought a wealth of education, well-being and water with him to support underprivileged children in his home country.

What are other examples of activities that SAP employees have been engaged with to support the goal of Quality Education? Activities are manifold – and here are only a few examples:

• participation in the First Lego League
• giving away SAP software licenses for free to universities and schools around the globe for educational and research purposes and organizing academic conferences to share insights into co-innovation projects
• a project with the University of Mannheim to improve the infrastructure of bike paths in the Metropolregion Rhein-Neckar
• Young Thinkers Program that run classes jointly with teachers and school kids to work on economics and technology topics
• Bringing students in touch with companies, including members of SAP user groups who are looking for young talents to co-innovate with and solve real-life challenges

Watch the recorded session to gain more insights:

Michael Nürnberg, Head of SAP University Alliance DACH region / SAP Next-Gen, SAP, and members of his team – Katrin Redmann and Rimwaya Gustave Sawadogo – sharing insights into various projects.